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Meatless Friday: Easy Spinach-Mushroom Calzones

I’m looking for a lot more meatless fare for Lent since my 14 year-old and I gave up meat completely. I found a delicious spinach lasagna dish that I’ve made a couple of times, and I decided I would use part of that recipe to create a calzone for dinner. I went the easy route and purchased Grands! Crescent Rolls, but if you’re handier in the kitchen than I am, you could make your own dough and stuff it with the fillings I have here.

Basic Information/Supplies:

Prep: 25-30 minutes

Cooking: 20-22 minutes

Supplies: large skillet, large mixing bowl, two large cookie sheets, aluminum foil

Yield: 12 calzones

Ingredients:

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion

10 to 12 ounces chopped frozen spinach (one package)

8 to 12 ounces chopped mushrooms (baby Bellas are fantastic!)

12-16 ounces part-skim ricotta

3/4 to 1 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese

3 packages of Grands! Crescent Rolls

Butter-flavored cooking spray

Optional: marinara sauce or pizza sauce for dipping

Instructions:

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and add the onion, mushrooms, and spinach. (If you have the block-style frozen spinach, I recommend defrosting it first. I discovered that Pictsweet sells a bagged kind that is much easier to use and doesn’t need to be wrung out upon defrosting, or even defrosted before using it here.)

Once the onions and mushrooms are softened and excess water from the spinach is evaporated, remove from heat. In a large bowl, mix the cheese together, then add spinach mixture and blend well.

Here’s where I turned on my oven to preheat to 375º F. (Why do recipes act like you’re going to do half an hour of prep with the oven on the whole time? It doesn’t take that long to preheat.) Cover your two cookie sheets with aluminum foil and coat lightly with cooking spray.

Now it’s time to get the rolls out. You’ll use them two at a time. Take a rectangle of dough and pinch the seams together. Drop about 1/4 cup or so of spinach mix onto half of the dough, then fold over. Roll and pinch the sides to seal the pocket. Repeat with remaining rolls.

Once all of the pockets are sealed, take a small paring knife and cut a few small vents in the top of the calzone so it can release steam. (Since I made a few with pepperoni instead of the spinach and mushroom, mine have P for pepperoni and S for spinach.)

If desired, spray the tops of the calzones with butter-flavored cooking spray.

Bake at 375º for 22 minutes. (I switch my cookie sheets halfway through for more even baking.)

Allow to cool for 5 minutes before eating. Serve with dipping sauce on the side.